I welcome Yahoo's announcement that it will now retain users' search data for no more than 90 days. That's much more reasonable than the company's previous limit of 13 months, and it sets a bold standard for Google and Microsoft to match.
Currently Google retains personal user search data for nine months, while Microsoft holds it for 18 months (though last week Redmond said it would be willing to reduce it to six months, as requested by European regulators, if competitors followed suit).
Of course, despite the "step in the right direction" sentiment among some privacy advocates, Yahoo's move clearly is driven by a desperate business need -- giving online searchers a reason to choose Yahoo's search services, rather than Google's or Microsoft's. This is, after all, about the advertising dollars.
Unfortunately for Yahoo, protecting user privacy, at least according to
this New York Times article, may not be a magic bullet:
[I]t is not clear that stronger privacy protections are enough of a
selling point with consumers to make then switch search engines. Last
year, Ask.com introduced a new feature called AskEraser, which allows
users to search anonymously, and which the company said would help it
increase its audience. However, Ask.com's share of the search market
has remained relatively stagnant. Google is the dominant search engine.
On the other hand, Yahoo has a much larger share of the search market (almost 21%) than Ask.com (4%) and thus might be in better position to leverage users who do view privacy as a selling point. On the other, other hand, there's not much to stop Google or Microsoft from matching Yahoo's policy, which essentially wipes out Yahoo's advantage. Tough spot to be in.
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